Mat Frewer wasn’t in Tremors. You may be thinking of Michael Gross.
We know that bites are one way that the “infection” spreads. We don’t know that there aren’t others. But I agree that it shouldn’t spread so quickly, even with multiple sites of initial infection, because how many dead bodies does the average person come into contact with on a daily basis?
I paid $6 for the Sunday Matinee, and while it wasn’t bad, I thought it was pretty much generic horror-flick fare.
Whoever said the characters were acting smartly…well, let’s just say I disagree. I thought they were doing quite a bit of the standard horror movie “stupid stuff.”
At the end:
They were on a sail boat fercryinoutloud! Why did they run the tanks dry and then dock on that island without first finding out whether it was “clean” or not? Stupid!
I imagine after getting shot, Matt Frewer had all the headroom he’d ever need. It struck me as an odd waste of a bullet, though. It would have made more sense to wait until he died and then decapitate him with a fire axe.
The guy in the gun store should have been picking the zombies off steadily. If he had a reasonably well-stocked gun store, he could have capped at least a thousand zombies a day. Also, the guys in the mall should have been tossing cans of flammables into the zombie crowd and reducing their numbers that way.
One minor bit that’s confusing me, though, was the implication that Jay Leno, Burt Reynolds and Rosie O’Donnell were really in the crowd, or just zombies that resembled them, the challenge being to see if Andy could spot (and snipe) the chosen zombies based on who the mall guys thought they resembled, kind of like playing “Where’s Waldo” ?
Also, the word “zombie” was never actually used in the movie, and I was listening carefully. Anyhoo, a fun way to blow a Sunday night.
It’s unknown how long they were out on the water before docking. Being inexperienced sailors they probably didn’t feel comfortable trying to use the sails to get around. I’ve been in plenty of boats but other then lowering the sails I don’t know anything else about sailing. I imagine they didn’t start to use the sails until they had to.
Marc
The celebrities weren’t actually in the crowd, the survivors were just amusing themselves.
As for landing on the island, I think they just sort of drifted after running out of everything. I did think it was great that after all the preparation they had for escaping (damn, that scene of the crowding zombies was awesome…until that freakin’ propane tank), they didn’t take any food or water…Also why were there maggots? They’d certainly been around long enough that that food would have been eaten.
As for the fast-vs.-slow debate, I think the slow works because you know that while you’re faster than them now, you won’t always be. At some point, you’re going to get tired or make a wrong turn and then they’ve got you. Much more frightening, I think. Although I loved when the chick got in the car at the beginning and the husband was chasing her, but saw the other dude and tackled him.
I am such a geek when I watch these movies.
[spoiler]
My first concern is always how I would handle the situation better than the characters in the movie. I just want to know that I would be a survivor when the inevitable zombie revolt comes. My wife insists (quite cruelly I think) that I would be among the first ones killed, I think not.
First order of business would be connecting the group at the mall with Andy at the gun store. I noticed there was a sporting goods store at the mall. If there was a bow and arrow they would be all set. Just attach some fishing line to an arrow and keep firing until you can get it to land on Andy’s roof. Now you have a zip line. The mall is higher than the gun store, so small amounts of food can pass from the mall to the gun store.
The problem would be getting the line returned to the roof of the mall. Do that and you have a pulley. Not impossible as I assume some gun stores also sell bows. You can now pass ammo and firearms back and forth.
Andy acting alone could kill one zombie per minute (conservatively estimating). With a ten hour shift that is 600 per day. If they could equalize the ammo then at least five people could be firing. That leaves us with 3000 dead zombies per day.
The population of Milwaukee is around 500,000. At most I can imagine 30-50,000 in the area of the mall. In ten days they could clean up the area without any danger. From there you spread out and find more gun stores (the location of which Andy would know). You recruit more survivors and stay high and out of zombie reach. Survival of your bloodline is assured. [/spoiler]
I agree. As much as I love my dog, if I knew he was surrounded by zombies that had absolutely no interest in eating him, I’d let him have his own happy little life down there and not go running into a swarm of cannibals to “save” him. I can understand why the character would feel the compulsion (having lost everyone she loves and all), but she had a friggin’ boyfriend…hold onto him, darling.
Switching out the crowbar for a croquet mallet? Whah?
And fruitbat, I like the way you think. Personally, I was just thinking of tying a thick rope from the hardware store around a baseball or tennis ball and using that to get a life line across the pit. Then send some more supplies from the hardware store across to make a pulley system, and there you have it. Hell, it was probably close enough that someone could have thrown a ball across the stretch and made it to Andy’s roof…Ving looks like he could chuck a baseball pretty damn far, in my opinion. But overall, connections between the two of them could have been handled much more effectively.
Just out of curiosity, did anyone else wonder this? at the end when everyone’s ridding off on the boat and the one guy’s staying behind (man, I am so bad with character names)…why were the zombies all holding back? They aren’t afraid of phsyical pain, and it didn’t look like there was a problem getting past the wreckage of the truck, so why the hold up?.
The word “zombie” isn’t used in virtually any zombie movie. Other than the NotLD remake, the only other movie I can recall where knowledge of zombies is made is Wild Zero where they all admit to never having seen NofLD.
It was further than you are recalling. If you think about it, you have at the least the distance of the parking lot which would not be an insubstantial distance. I think the best center fielder in MLB would have a hard time clearing the distance of a parking lot at any modern mall.
Also recall, they used binoculars to read messages written on an approx. 4x3 white board.
I do think, using a bow & arrow type system, you could possibly make it. My only problem with that is that it has been a long time since mall-based sporting goods stores carried such things. Similar to the original DotD gun-store, those things are just not a part of the traditional Ambercrombie & Fitch retail space any longer.
When they arrive at the dock, the truck crashes into the actual dock and actually stops several yards into the dock when it collapses. Between the distance it made it down the dock thereby blocking the width, the damage to the dock from the truck collapsing it, and the fire, the zombies did not have a clear access point.
Plus, we all know Zombies do not like water unless they are cast in an Italian zombie flick and then they’ll fight sharks! Whoot!!
MeanJoe
Hmmmm…I guess I just had a different understanding of the layout of their location on the mall. It didn’t seem like they had the parking garage between them and Andy’s shop, so the distance didn’t seem that far.
As for the zombies stopping, it still didn’t seem like the dock was wrecked that much. These zombies seemed pretty determined, I’m sure a five to ten foot gap wouldn’t stop them from throwing themselves at the dock to get some food. There were enough of them anyway that even if they couldn’t swim, they’d probably clog up the gap soon enough so the others could walk over…but these guys weren’t smart enough to throw rocks at windows, so who can say?
I’m going for my 2nd viewing today so I’ll take a closer look and try to pay close attention to these two points.
Ya’ know, I’ve been around SDMB for awhile lurking and occassionally contributing but had not planned on paying to become a member. This is by far my favorite thread to date and I’m glad to see so many well informed zombie movie fans. Maybe I will toss my principles aside (they get in the way of having real fun anyway) and cough up the 5 bucks. 
Second viewing, eh? If you go to a matinee, you can use the left over cash to pay your membership, ya know 
Click link. Sip coffee while scolling. Read this. Coffee. Laugh. Expulsion. Sinus passages flooded. Ouch!
I am going to the matinee but the question is, to popcorn or not. That is the question!
I’m a real wuss when it comes to horror flicks, I’m usually jumpy and have a hard time sleeping for the first day or two after seeing them. That fades quickly, but I’m usually left with one of two disturbing images from the film.
In DotD, the scene that stuck with me was when Andy had been bitten, but they did not know if he had died yet. Ving Rhames sees Andy on the roof writing on his dry erase board, but when Andy holds up the message, it is just smeared blood and you can tell he is zombified. That was really sad and horrifying for me, much more so than the stupid evil baby or even when they shot Andy later while retrieving the dumb dog girl.
I enjoyed the movie, not as good as the original or 28 days, but still fun.
After the movie my buddy (another zombie survival planning fan) told me about a book I absolutely have to get. It’s called The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. It’s a parody of the SAS survival guides and their ilk, but it’s about how to survive the inevitable zombie horde!
Now, to express my inner geek: [spoiler] I spent most of the movie trying to figure out a way the mall people could hook up with gun store guy. I’m pretty sure the distance between the roofs was at least a kilometer or more, I doubt a bow could shoot a weighed down arrow that far. In fact, when Andy told them he was hungry I was trying to think of a way they could load loaves of bread into a catapult to clear the distance.
Then I thought; “Why don’t they just drive the delivery truck?” They could strap some mattresses on the roof and then just get Andy to jump on the truck when they pulled up to the building. It would be even simpler if Andy’s store had a loading dock (we never saw the back of the store, did we?)
Also, why were they so determined to leave the mall? If they could have gotten Andy over there (Which would have been easy if they had just opened the damn door to the parking garage instead of crashing thru it and thus losing the garage permanently), they should have been able to hold out pretty much indefinitely.
As far as I could tell their whole escape plan consisted of “Let’s abandon our only known safe location (ok, “safer” location) and send everybody out to look for some island that might be better” Wouldn’t it have made much more sense to send out 2 or 3 people with a radio to scout out the mythical island first? Then the folks who remained safely behind (remember my earlier point about opening the damn door? that means you can also close it again afterwards) can always come later (or not, depending on who survived the dock dinner crowd). [/spoiler]
This was my first time posting a link and using a Spoiler tag… Yeh Me!!! 
I agree on the spoiler scene. One of the criticisms of this movie has been the lack of empathy (or “they are us”) towards the zombies that the original conveyed. I felt it was one of the few truly remarkable scenes that brought a little bit of “humanity” to the movie.
I think we’re past the need for spoiler tags now… spoilers below.
The scene that made me wince the most was seeing the chick getting sliced with the chainsaw. When the old fella picked up the chainsaw I knew it was going to end badly, and I was right. It just went into whatserface like a hot knife through butter.
Just caught this flick yesterday. I only have one problem with it.
[SPOILER]My problem with the remake is this: In the first DotD, the four survivors find themselves at a shopping mall because it’s the easiest line of defense. However, as they stay longer and longer, they grow accustomed to being there – to the point where they forget about the impending doom just outside the doors. In a way, it’s their own hubris that leads to their downfall – the feeling of invincibility and their refusal to leave.
In this one, the mall was less a symbol for consumerism and familiarity than it was a deus ex machina-style fortress. They’re basically trapped – there’s no use in getting angry at them like you did the survivors in the original, because honestly…it’s out of their hands.
Somebody totally blew past all the subtext of the original to give us the remake – which had some cool moments, true, but in no way compares.[/SPOILER]
Do we really have to keep using spoiler tags? We’re three pages in, fer cryin’ out loud.
My thought was, “there’s a sporting goods store, so there’s probably skis. Skis are flexible. Use them to make a catapult.” You could fling even heavy objects quite far with a skiapult.
Nah, not so hard. Once you pass the original line, you can use it to pull across a doubled-over line of heavier rope, which gives you the loop to start your pulley system.
What bugged me was the “chainsaw accident” on the bus. I haven’t bought one in a while, but don’t chainsaws have safety mechanisms on them that brake the chain unless you’re using it two-handed? The chain shouldn’t have been moving anyway unless the guy was giving it power at that precise moment.
The best part, for me, was the very beginning, when she was escaping in her car. The chaos and devastation she drove through was just awesome.
I especially like the helicopter shot when she drives past the intersection, barely avoiding the out of control drive who slams into a van before careening into a fuel tank, erupting into a fireball…all which just happens in an incidental manner. I thought that shot was worth price of admission. (of course I did go to a free sneak peak, but that’s beside the point totally)